World Cup History: 1930 to 2006

Bold face = Won as host nation.

The World Cup was the creation of Jules Rimet, who was a French sportsman with a global vision. He imagined a competition that would unite the world every four years. Mr. Rimet was also the President of the world soccer governing body, FIFA, for 33 years. The original trophy was sculpted by the French artist, Abel Lefleur, and was named Winged Victory. The first competition took place in Uruguay. Teams from the United Kingdom decided not to participate. In the first final, Uruguay defeated Argentina, 4 to 2. The mother of football, England, did not make a World Cup appearance until 1950.

After Mr. Rimet's death, the trophy would bear his name between 1950 and 1970: The Jules Rimet Cup. In 1970, Brazil retired the trophy, but it was later stolen, and never recovered. Present day winners receive a replica of the actual trophy; however, FIFA keeps the original in their offices in Switzerland. I had the privilege to view the FIFA World Cup trophy in 1994 during a promotional tour in Washington, DC. You can see your reflection in the golden dome that represents the world.

Interesting Facts

• The United States had won a game at the Word Cup before England, Italy, or Germany did.
• Only one nation has competed in every World Cup.
• One country holds the following goal scoring records: first goal ever scored, most goals scored by an individual in one competition, and the first golden goal.
• Only one man has played in three consecutive final games, and only one player has ever won three World Cup titles. 
• Only three men have played in five World Cup tournaments. Only one has played 23 completed games.
• Only one coach has ever won two World Cups.
• Only two men have ever won the World Cup both as a player and as a coach.
• One man has coached five different teams at the World Cup.
• One man coached his own son at one competition. At the next tournament, he coached a different national team, and came one game away from playing against his son. 
• One country lost two consecutive final games to the host nation.
• Prior to the final game of 2002, Germany and Brazil had never met before in the entire history of the competition. Collectively, they have appeared in fourteen of the eighteen final games.
• It is the most watched sporting competition in the entire world.

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World Cup History Test by Steve Amoia

I have developed and authored a World Cup History test for Brainbench, the skills authority. Brainbench provides online certification and assessments for hundreds of different skills. You will need to create a free account to take this test.

World Cup History Test for Brainbench

My Commentaries

International Herald Tribune World Cup Fan Blog.

I participated in this interesting project during WC 2006.

World Cup 2002.

I did these on my own.

Interesting Links

FIFA Football World Cup (A very detailed historical reference article by Wikipedia that shows team and player records.)

Historical Formations (An excellent article about the development of soccer playing formations, along with an analysis of present day tactical systems.)

Jules Rimet Cup (Pictures of the original trophy, along with the present day FIFA World Cup.)

Planet World Cup (An excellent site with all of the historical statistics of the competition.)

Soccer History (Here is a great link about the development of organized soccer in England in 1863.)

The Game of Their Lives (Is a movie detailing the historic American victory over England in the 1950 World Cup. It remains one of the biggest surprises in World Cup history, and unfortunately, has never received proper recognition in the sports media. Several players from the St. Louis area participated on this memorable team. The team also featured several Italian-Americans, and the winning goal was scored by a Haitian immigrant, Joseph Gaetjens. The above link is maintained by the Baudo family, and has many links about the movie itself, along with other informative soccer links. Ann Baudo's husband, Frank "Pee Wee" Wallace, was one of the members of the team. He scored a goal in another game during the 1950 competition.)

(This is an excellent award-winning site by Wojciech Dzierzbicki.)

World Cup All-Star Teams (From 1930 to 1994.)

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